National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop ... seeks scrutiny of NBC"s Kunda 2 television. Photo: PNG blogs

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Henry Yamo

A leading  parliamentarian in Papua New Guinea wants the government to review funding to the state-owned NBC Kundu 2 television station.

Governor Powes Parkop of the National Capital District was reported by The National as saying this during question time in Parliament yesterday when accusing the media of bias, giving more air time to government critics than government MPs.

This accusation by a serving politician comes at a time when countries around the world – including Papua New Guinea – observe the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day this Thursday. Read more »

Papua New Guinea gold ... vast mineral wealth changing Pacific politics. Photo: Kiridaresources

Pacific Scoop:
Commentary – By economist Professor Wadan Narsey

If this was a news release by a geologist, alarm bells would be ringing around the Pacific and international scientific community.

But retitle it “Pacific politics tilting to PNG” and the alarm bells would be ringing in Samoa, Tonga and the Cooks (as I am sure they already are).

However, if Papua New Guinea ever decides to flex its burgeoning muscles, encouraged by a belligerent Fiji, the alarm bells would be ringing loudest in Canberra and Wellington. Read more »

Bugandi Secondary School's famous band ... the school has been at the centre of a land title controversy. Photo: Haiveta Kivia/Post-Courier

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Henry Yamo

Journalists investigating corruption in the Pacific face threats and victimisation of their families, says a leading young Papua New Guinean journalist.

Speaking on anti-corruption reporting at a recent Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) conference in Fiji, award-winning PNG journalist Haiveta Kivia said such investigations were difficult for reporters.

Kivia of the Post-Courier won the inaugural UNDP 2011 Excellence in Anti‐Corruption Reporting Media Award for his “relentless digging” into payments of more than K250,000 to an unqualified consultant by the Bugandi Secondary School in PNG. Read more »

Women miners wade through heavy metal laden effluent at Porgera, Papua New Guinea, in search of gold. Photo: Brent Stirton/Reportage/Human Rights Watch

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Helen Hughes

The villagers of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, together with those of Fiji’s military dictatorship where living standards have been dropping precipitously, make up most of the population of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. They are now among the very poorest people in the world.

Women and their babies die in childbirth in the bush. Children are wracked by diarrhoea and chest catarrhs. HIV/AIDS in PNG compares with Mali and Burkina Faso. Illnesses no longer evident in most of the world plague adults.

Cholera outbreaks in Madang and Lae threaten Australian travellers. Drug-resistant tuberculosis has crossed to Australia’s Sabai and other Torres Strait islands. Read more »

John Woods is editor of Cook Islands News. Photo: USP

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Perrottet of Pacific Media Watch

The Pacific Islands News Association meets today in Pacific Harbour, Fiji, to celebrate milestones and hold its Pacific Media Summit.

The regional organisation, which turns 40 this year, is pushing ahead with its controversial agenda to engage directly with the Bainimarama regime, making that patently clear by inviting the Prime Minister himself to make the opening address at the summit tonight.

The organisation has had a running feud with ex-members and several Pacific journalists, publishers and broadcasters over divided opinions on what the media priorities are for the region. Read more »

Co-editor Dr Papoutsaki ... high turnover of PNG journalists hampers media. Professor Marilyn Waring pictured in the background. Photo: Del Abcede / PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Melissa Low

Poor pay is forcing journalists in Papua New Guinea to flee the industry.

That is the message from Dr Evangelia Paputsaki, co-editor of Communication, Culture and Society in Papua New Guinea: Yu Tok Wanem? published last week by Divine Word University Press and Pacific Media Centre.

As former head of communication arts at PNG’s Divine Word University, Dr Papoutsaki watches many young Papua New Guinean journalists struggle to stay in the news industry. Read more »

Henry Yamo, one of the new communication and society book authors, presents a signed copy to PNG High Commissioner William Dihm in Auckland. Photo: Del Abcede / PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – Pacific Media Watch

Communicators in Oceania have a duty not only to inform and investigate but also to interpret the impact of global and local future trends in the region, says New Zealand’s only professor of Pacific studies.

They need to interpret how they influence daily life in Papua New Guinea and the region, said Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop.

Speaking at the launching of a new book at AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre, Tagaloatele said the role of the media in developing countries needed to be examined given the diversity of languages, cultural values and beliefs. Read more »

A RAMSI soldier in the Solomon Islands ... from peacekeeping to rebuilding a future. Photo: A still from the exhibition.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Henry Yamo

The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) programme has now swung into transition mode with Solomon Islanders taking a greater lead in defining their own future.

RAMSI Deputy Special Coordinator Wayne Higgins highlighted this in Auckland last night when launching a photographic exhibition showcasing the history and achievements of the nine-year-old programme.

“Much has been achieved by RAMSI over the past nine years through perseverance, commitment and a strong sense of teamwork,” he told the audience, which included several former RAMSI project participants from New Zealand and a former Pacific prime minister. Read more »

Fiji regime prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama ... believes Australian policy - especially shunning Fiji - has weakened Canberra's influence in the Pacific region. Photo: Graham Davis / Grubsheet

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Graham Davis in Suva

Frank Bainimarama – Fiji’s prime minister and the current chair of the four-nation Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) – has joined the chorus of criticism of Kevin Rudd in advance of Monday’s leadership vote in Australia, accusing him of having neglected the Pacific as foreign minister.

He said Canberra’s lack of attention to the region – and especially its policy of shunning Fiji – had weakened Australian influence in the Pacific and had created a vacuum that bigger powers were moving to fill.

Countries such as China and Russia were building relations with the smaller island states and strengthening their presence in Australia’s backyard. Read more »

Diplomatic issue for Australia, NZ and the US ... "how to contain China" in the Pacific. Photo: Global Times

Pacific Scoop:
Column – A Word From Afar – By Paul G. Buchanan

One of the interesting aspects of the leaked emails between Foreign Minister Murray McCully and MP John Hayes, a former diplomat, is the latter’s mention of the need to “resist” China’s growing presence in the South Pacific.

With that simple advice Hayes has revealed a much larger issue, one that undoubtedly has been discussed at length with New Zealand’s major allies, Australia and the US. The issue is how to contain China.

Along with nuclear deterrence, “containment” was at the heart of Western approaches to the Cold War. Read more »